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Introduction:
Rights and Worship
Derek Poole
Comment:
Religious Rights in Vietnam
Joanne Miosz
Comment2:
Drumcree
Mervyn Gibson
From
the Director
David Porter
Human
Rights - A Critical Appropriation
Julian Rivers
Human
Rights - Why Churches need to be involved
Brice Dickson
Parting
Thoughts on Life and Leaving
Tucker Ball
A
Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
David Stevens
Does
God always forgive his children?
Alan Wilson
Faith
and Practice - Ruth Lavery
Ruth Hutchinson
The
Concept of Rights
Joan Lockwood O'Donovan
A
BILL OF RIGHTS FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has been given the statutory duty of advising the Secretary of State on what additional rights, which are not protected under the European Convention on Human Rights, should be guaranteed in a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights. The Commission has undertaken to carry out widespread consultation on all the issues involved with all sections of the community in Northern Ireland and to prepare its draft report by the end of the year 2000. What are the main gaps in the European Convention on Human Rights? The Commission suggests there are six main areas: 1. Discrimination and Equality
There is no general guarantee of equality in the Convention. It covers only discrimination by public bodies in respect of rights guaranteed under the Convention. 2. Education
The Convention gives only limited protection to the rights of parents to have their children educated in the way they want. It does not guarantee any form of state funding for different kinds of education or any special protection for, for example, Catholic or Protestant or integrated schools. 3. Language
The Convention does not contain any specific guarantees of the right to use a minority language and it does not stop the authorities from requiring people to use the official language in their dealings with public bodies. 4. Communal and Cultural Rights
The Convention does not provide any general protection for the cultural or other rights of distinctive communities or any specific guarantee that they will be granted parity of treatment and esteem. 5. Economic and Social Rights
The Convention does not include any specific protection for economic and social rights, such as the right to health or housing or the right to safe conditions of work. 6. Victims' Rights
Neither the European Convention on Human rights nor any other major human rights convention contains any specific guarantees for the rights of victims of communal conflict or other serious abuses. In the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland it may be desirable to include some specific guaranteed of the rights of victims. General Considerations
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, human rights discourse has become an important part of the language of the good. In particular, the idea that we are all rights-bearing equals has been an important way that excluded and victimised groups have been able to make claims for recognition, inclusion and protection on the rest of society, and on the state. Human rights discourse, however, has its limitations. It reduces human beings to a contextless abstraction without a history and a culture. It also reduces human interaction to civil and legal obligation. It tends to ignore such fundamental issues as the levels of trust, confidence, integration, tolerance of diversity, security, mutual respect and sense of belonging in society. It also ignores why people in their diversity should be a community together at all, bound by mutual obligation. It assumes citizens bound by the rule of law and a state able, with the consent of its citizens, to enforce appropriate laws. Much of this is problematic in Northern Ireland. Christian Concern
Christian thinking about human rights proceeds from the dignity of the person 'made in the image of God' but also the social nature of humanity (God combines unity and relationship within himself). Everyone is a person-in-relationship whose well being cannot be attained alone. In practice the individual person and the community will always have claims against each other, and their rights might often be in tension. Nevertheless, their true fulfillment goes together. Human rights in this perspective are about those things which makes life more truly human. Christian thinking also proceeds from the reality that we constantly violate human dignity and our social relationships, and that restraints of law and force are necessary to prevent us from doing so. In this perspective human rights are about the necessary protection human beings need from each other. Christian faith also warns us against any utopianism in regard to human rights. The Context for a Bill of Rights
A Bill of Rights ought to be part of an agreement about how society is fairly run. As such it can be something - mutually agreed - which binds people together, a 'transcendent' to which everyone can appeal. It can be an expression of good working relationships between people and groups in society. Ideally it should be an integral part of a political accommodation between the main groups within a society (as was envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement). It cannot be a substitute for such an accommodation and will have its difficulties in its absence. To affirm human rights (as in a Bill of Rights) is also to affirm human responsibilities and obligations. To claim a right for myself means my claiming it for others too. There must be a willingness to treat other communities with the same fairness as one expects for one's own. (Both these are expressions of the Golden Rule). There is a responsibility and an obligation to work with others for the common good of society. This needs to be recognised in the drafting of a Bill of Rights, not only because it is generally true but because in the particular circumstances of a divided and contested society like Northern Ireland's there is already the danger of one community's 'rights' being asserted over and against another's. The Central Question in Northern Ireland
The central question in Northern Ireland is whether the two main communities can live and work together in a just relationship whilst being allowed to maintain their own distinctiveness as long as they wish. Thus the challenge is to create a social order which is equitable; which recognises and cherishes the diversity of its people in their historical and particular existence (including religion); and which promotes communication between members of different group and allows for shared living and institutions. A Bill of Rights should concern itself with all three elements and seek to promote an appropriate balance between them. If a Bill of Rights only deals with equity and diversity issues the danger is that it may heighten the competition between the two main communities and promote further fragmentation of Northern Irish society. It is, therefore, important that a Bill of Rights (1) gives legal support for policies and activities that promote living and working together ('promoting good relations' in the words of section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998) and (2) requires that the different identity groups have a responsibility to promote mutual respect and the common good. Similarly, different identity groups can only demand public recognition within reasonable boundaries prescribed ultimately by requirements that all citizens should be treated equally and by the effect on relationships within the community. An identity group's traditions self-expression etc., are to be taken seriously. But all its claims and demands for expression (e.g. as cultural rights) are not necessarily to be accepted by others or given recognition by the state (e.g.in a Bill of Rights). This is not what parity of esteem means. In a contested society like Northern Ireland's the danger is that the recognition of a particular communal or cultural right simply becomes part of the fight between the two main communities, spawning counter-claims and irreconcilable demands. A contested society is good at generating conflicting claims to 'rights', and a powerful rhetoric of justification. Thus a Bill of Rights needs to be particularly careful in dealing with particular communal and cultural rights that it does not further aggravate relations between the communities. There is a particular balance required to be struck between the rights of every citizen to be treated equitably and the recognition of different identity groups. Perhaps, there needs to be a clear distinction between certain fundamental rights, which apply equally to all citizens, and the rights which deal with the recognition of the two main communities and to parity of esteem between them. General Comments about a Bill of Rights
Provisions in a Bill of Rights should be drafted in fairly general terms and allow some flexibility for government to alter more specific legislation to meet changing circumstances. Rights sometimes come into collision or competition with one another, so that some rights must give way to others with a higher status or priority. Therefore, the drafting of a Bill of Rights, involves some ordering of rights. Such an ordering must involve a consideration of the common good. Particular Issues 1. Discrimination and Equality
Section 15 of the Canadian Charter should be looked at, being a more modern and comprehensive equality clause then those provided in most international human rights documents. Protection against discrimination should include a general exemption for measures designed to encourage greater integration of the two main communities (e.g. in housing and education). 2. Education
Consideration should be given to the formal recognition of the rights of parents to have their children educated in schools of a particular character, e.g. religious, integrated, Irish language, with equivalent state funding where the numbers involved justify such expenditure. A possible variant is a formal recognition of the rights of the two major education systems, integrated schools and Irish language schools to complete equality of funding and support. A formal obligation should be put on schools to promote understanding, tolerance and mutual respect. 3. Language
Consideration should be given to the formal recognition of Irish, Ulster Scots and other minority languages. Such recognition would allow for legislation to specify in detail the circumstances in which individuals or bodies would be entitled to use other languages in their dealings with government and for other official purposes, and to provide funding and support. 4. Promoting Good Relations in the Community
Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 puts an obligation on public authorities in Northern Ireland 'to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious beliefs, political opinions or racial groups'. Consideration should be given to putting a formal requirement in a Bill of Rights that all legislation should be scrutinised for its effects on relationships within the Northern Ireland community. 5. Victims of Violence
Victims of violence have their particular needs: for justice, for the seriousness of the harm to be acknowledged, for apology and repentance from those who have done them wrong, for their stories to be heard, for compensation, for practical support, etc. There are all sorts of contentious issues round victims of violence, e.g. who is to be 'rightfully' regarded as a victim? Might a preamble to a Bill of Rights seek to acknowledge the context in which it is set: a divided society, the hurt and pain of the last 30 years, the deaths and injuries, the need for a new start as a way of coming at this issue? 6. Social and Economic Rights
The general principle of recognising social and economic rights in a democratic constitutional order is to be supported. People need to have the conditions necessary for meaningful participation in the life of the community. Whether it is politically possible or sensible to include them in a Bill of Rights for only a part of the United Kingdom is another question. Freedom of Religion and the Right to Express Faith or Conviction Individually or Collectively
Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights has the following about freedom of religion: 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in a community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance. 2. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are subscribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health and morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedom of others. One issue for churches to consider might be to seek the extension of the individual application of this Article to the collective aspects of the expression of faith and conviction, i.e. that religious bodies have the freedom to organise their own affairs. An issue that religious bodies have been concerned about is the effect of fair employment legislation on their freedom to preserve their ethos through the employment of appropriate staff. This issue may be of relevance when considering a possible extension of Article 9. Edited from a document produced to help churches and Christian organisations by Dr. David Stevens in Temple Court, Belfast in April 2000. David Stevens is General Secretary of The Irish Council of Churches.
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